So these three statements in essence they form spiritual progress when they are completely established in the individual. What is spiritual progress? Take any individual when he has no progress – he is just a beginner. Say he starts with these three statements in front of him.
I look at them in a book – I hear man is Divine. I get an impression I see, so I am Divine. You are Divine, my neighbor, everybody is Divine. But then next moment I don’t act like a Divine being, I fight, I quarrel, like hate or I am in a different mood. Then again I look at the statement. So this is the ordinary aspirant – the same statements are there constantly before him.
He looks at them but can’t live up to them. Take the highest spiritually evolved person, the so-called spiritual progress, the man of Illumination. The same statements are there but not in front of him. They are in him. He need not look at them and then repent and sigh and say “Oh I have not been able to do it.”
There it is you know. Constantly reminding me “you are Divine. your goal in life is to manifest the Divinity and to that purpose you have to respect and accept and assimilate. Also the best of all religions, religions which emphasize the manifestation of Divinity in man as the goal of life. Now actually what bothers us is how to do it? The know-how. As you call it, how shall I do it? And if I start doing it then certain new problems come to a spiritual aspirant. So I want to mention something about these two – the starting point and after the starting.
Some have actually started a new perspective about spiritual life suddenly comes and how to face that and that is in essence spiritual progress. Progress is actually what is it in your mind you know. What we call one track gradient grade up is so called progression. There is no going down, there is no curve in our minds of whatever is called progress. Up, up it must continuously be a one track upgrade.
If there is at any point even a stalling then you don’t call it progress immediately. It’s the wrong definition of progress. It must be movement. So we take it from what we know – on the roads you know movement, you have to be moving and at the same time what else do you? Expect increase in quality and also quantity. That’s also progress. Something should tell you “I am increasing in quantity.